Kenneth Kaunda

Kenneth Kaunda (28 April 1924-) was President of Zambia from 24 October 1964 to 2 November 1991, preceding Frederick Chiluba.

Biography
Kenneth Kaunda was born in Chinsali, Northern Rhodesia in 1924, and he became a teacher and a minister in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Politically active from the early 1950s, he advanced to become president of the Zambian African National Congress in 1958, and of the United National Independence Party in 1960. He won the elections of 1962, and became Zambia's first president upon independence. A strong critic of Western capitalism, he created a socialist state, and became one of the world's leading opponents of Ian Smith's Rhodesian regime, as well as of apartheid in South Africa. This raised his international profile and, as one of Africa's most respected elder statesmen, he was president of the Organization of African Unity from 1983 to 1988. Despite his own outspokenness, he did not tolerate criticism at home, however, and suppressed two revolts in 1986 and 1990. As a result of the country's economic difficulties, discontent became such that he allowed multi-party elections in 1991, which he lost to Frederick Chiluba.